A closer look at our predictions for the February 2020 California Bar Exam

We previously shared our predictions for the February 2020 California Bar Exam. If you missed that post, please click here

for an overview. Before we go any further on this topic, we want to emphasize an important point – please study ALL subjects for the California Bar Exam and do NOT rely on these predictions alone. Truth is, you never know what the bar examiners are going to do at the end of the day. We can merely glean and find insight from past examinations in order to make our predictions.

The California bar exam covers a vast majority of legal rules within each subject. The wealth of information contained within each essay subject is one of the reasons the California bar exam is difficult to pass. However, the bar examiners love retesting issues and focusing their attention to specific legal rules that are tested over and over again. Based on this pattern and drawing from past exams administered, we have compiled a list of hot topics per predicted subject:

Evidence

Relevance, hearsay, impeachment, character evidence and privileges.

Torts

Negligence, products liability, defamation, defenses, torts remedies crossover.

Remedies

TROs, Preliminary Injunction, specific performance, defenses, equitable remedies: reformation, rescission, conversion, misrepresentation remedies, restitution.

Business Associations

Corps: fiduciary duties, derivative action, shareholder rights, conflicts, director duties. Agency/Partnership: LLPs, general partnerships/authority, fiduciary duties, and dissolution.

Community Property

CP vs. SP, commingling funds, quasi CP, gifts, stock options & child support, transmutation, putative spouse, debts, and torts.

Professional Responsibility

Duty of loyalty, duty of confidentiality, fee agreements/fee sharing, withdrawal, safeguard clients property, malpractice, and duties to the court.

Trusts

Types of trusts, termination, duties of trustee, abatement,

Wills

Creation of will, formalities, validity of will, revocation, omitted spouse/child, codicils, ademption, lapse/anti lapse.

Good luck!